Senior IT Officer, Business Solutions I

Description

Working at the World Bank Group (WBG) provides a unique opportunity to help client countries solve their greatest development challenges. The World Bank Group is one of the largest sources of funding and knowledge for developing countries; a unique global partnership of five institutions dedicated to ending poverty on a livable planet.

With 189 member countries and more than 120 offices worldwide, the World Bank Group works with public and private partners, invests in groundbreaking projects and uses data, research, and technology to develop solutions to pressing global, regional and local challenges. For more information, please visit http://www.worldbank.org

The organization has undertaken an ambitious exercise to revise its mandate, products and structure to adjust to the multiple, intertwined crises affecting the world today (see Evolution Roadmap), in the move to becoming a better Bank.

Business Unit Overview

The mission of the Information and Technology Solutions (ITS) Vice Presidential Unit (VPU) is to leverage information and technology as a force multiplier to accelerate, deepen, and sustain development impact. Their vision is to harness information and technology for a world free of poverty on a livable planet. For more information on ITS, check this video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?reload=9&v=VTFGffa1Y7w

Department Context

The WBG Corporate Solutions Department (ITSCO) is focused on the digital transformation of essential corporate services to ensure WBG operations are seamless, resilient, and future‑ready. Uniting digitalization roadmaps, experience design, process optimization, application delivery, systems management, and technology modernization across some 170 products and services, the department links business ambition with operational excellence—from intuitive employee experiences and precision payroll to data-driven decision making, intelligent automation, and AI enablement. Operating from Washington, Chennai, Sofia, and additional locations in a global delivery model, the team seeks to combine disciplined strategic planning with focused roadmaps, agile product delivery, design‑forward innovation, digital engineering, automation, and AI to produce solutions that are engaging, impactful, and efficient. The goal is a unified, OneWBG corporate backbone—streamlined, connected, and adaptive—that empowers leaders, staff, partners, and shareholders with the processes, capabilities, and insights to advance the WBG's mission at scale.

Unit Context

The Corporate Digital Backbone (ITSCD) unit serves as both the steward and transformation catalyst for the World Bank Group’s broad corporate technology portfolio of approximately 170 applications. This diverse landscape—spanning on-premises enterprise class ERP systems, cloud-based SaaS offerings, specialized vendor tools, and custom solutions built on multiple stacks—forms the digital backbone of the institution’s corporate functions. The unit guides the modernization, consolidation, and integration of these systems to create a unified, secure, and future ready application ecosystem. The unit provides application frameworks and digital capabilities for the product teams across the department to leverage accelerated delivery.

Duties and Responsibilities

The Senior Solution Architect is accountable for implementing the unit’s strategic direction by designing and delivering AI first, cloud native, resilient, and secure application architectures. The role addresses complex systems integration and multiplatform challenges to ensure performance, interoperability, and alignment with organizational goals. The architect defines and maintains the portfolio’s technical vision and architecture, ensuring it supports business objectives today and scales for tomorrow—embedding intelligent capabilities and modern data architecture principles throughout.

• Define the target architecture & blueprints: Own high-level‑ designs, patterns, integrations, and technology stacks that prioritize AI-first and cloud‑-‑native paradigms (microservices, containers, serverless) and modern data architecture principles, ensuring scalability, resilience, and security from the outset.

• Engineer a robust technology foundation: Design, develop, and maintain secure, scalable application and data platforms that support diverse solutions and personalized experiences across a heterogeneous environment.

• Evaluate and implement technologies: Select fit for‑ ‑purpose frameworks, platforms, and AI/ML models based on performance, security, and operability; guide POCs to production ‑grade solutions.

• Institutionalize modern delivery: Drive DevOps/Platform Engineering, CI/CD, and automation; promote best practices for software development and data lifecycle management, including AI-‑enabled coding and low code/no‑ code approaches where appropriate‑.

• Enable data architecture & integration: Architect for seamless data flow across systems, including data pipelines, ETL/ELT processes, and integration frameworks for structured and unstructured data.

• Enterprise integration & autonomy: Design enterprise integration frameworks and platforms for efficient data exchange, process orchestration, and unified operations across corporate systems.

• Embed intelligence: Integrate analytics and AI capabilities into the portfolio to enable smarter decision-making‑ and interoperability.

• Coach and collaborate: Partner with product teams and solution architects to translate business needs into coherent digital and data solutions; mentor engineers; lead architecture reviews and ensure adherence to guardrails and governance.

Selection Criteria

• Master’s degree in Computer Science, Engineering, Information Systems, or related field and 8+ years progressively responsible experience; or Bachelor’s with 10+ years; or equivalent combination of education and experience.

• Proven track record leading the design of scalable architectures, conducting architecture reviews, communicating vision to stakeholders, and guiding Agile teams to successful delivery in complex, multi‑disciplinary programs.

• Application & Cloud: Hands‑on with Azure services (App Services, Functions, Key Vault, Azure DevOps, etc.) and modern front‑end frameworks (e.g., Angular). Strong with relational databases (Azure SQL, SQL Server, PostgreSQL).

• Data Engineering: Experience with data modeling, ETL/ELT pipelines, data integration tools, orchestration frameworks, and streaming technologies (e.g., Kafka/Event Hubs); familiarity with big data platforms and modern data architecture.

• Architecture Patterns: Microservices, event driven architectures, API gateways, service mesh, serverless, caching, and observability.

• Integration: Enterprise integration patterns, messaging/streaming, and API first design; securing and scaling integrations across hybrid estates.

• AI/MLOps, DevOps & Automation: CI/CD, good understanding of infrastructure as code (e.g., Bicep/ARM/Terraform), configuration management, secrets management, policy as code, and platform/AI guardrails.

• AI & Intelligent Systems: Working knowledge of AI enabled development tools, generative AI for automation and coding assistance, and designing architectures that support AI/ML workloads and model lifecycle management.

• Security & Resilience: Threat modeling, zero trust principles, encryption, identity, network segmentation, high availability/DR, performance engineering, and cost optimization.

• Agile at scale: Deep experience with Scrum/Kanban and familiarity with SAFe practices (program increments, architecture runway, enablers).

• Design & Governance: Design thinking, portfolio/technology governance, SDLC/SDP, and measurable architecture outcomes; excellent documentation and communication.

• Certifications - One or more cloud architect certifications:

• Microsoft Certified: Azure Solutions Architect Expert, AWS Certified Solutions Architect – Professional, or Google Professional Cloud Architect. Agile/DevOps certifications preferred: SAFe for Architects (ARCH), SAFe DevOps (SDP).

• Business - Sense of urgency, thoughtful risk-taking, empowerment and accountability.

• Soft Skills - Strong communication, analytical thinking, influencing, and critical reasoning.

This internal requisition is open to WBG and IMF staff only (including short-term and extended term consultants/ temporaries). External candidates are requested not to apply. In case an external candidate applies, their application will not be considered.

WBG Culture Attributes:

1. Sense of urgency: Anticipate and quickly respond to the needs of internal and external stakeholders.
2. Thoughtful risk-taking: Challenge the status quo and push boundaries to achieve greater impact.
3. Empowerment and accountability: Empower yourself and others to act and hold each other accountable for results.

World Bank Group Core Competencies

The World Bank Group offers comprehensive benefits, including a retirement plan; medical, life and disability insurance; and paid leave, including parental leave, as well as reasonable accommodations for individuals with disabilities.

We are proud to be an equal opportunity and inclusive employer with a dedicated and committed workforce, and do not discriminate based on gender, gender identity, religion, race, ethnicity, sexual orientation, or disability.

Learn more about working at the World Bank and IFC, including our values and inspiring stories.